Chargers almost set on GM, moving into coach search

The Chargers have talked to almost everyone they believe they need to or will get a chance to talk to, and their search for a new general manager is almost certainly down to two men.

Jimmy Raye, the Chargers’ Director of Player Personnel, or Tom Telesco, the Indianapolis Colts’ Vice President of Football Operations, will likely be named as A.J. Smith’s successor in “a day or two,” according to a team source.

The Chargers brass – consisting of president Dean Spanos and his son, John, the team’s director of college scouting, vice president Ed McGuire and consultant Ron Wolf -- hit the road on Thursday and returned to San Diego on Sunday. On the trip, they interviewed Telesco and New York Giants Director of College Scouting Marc Ross.

They also flew to Phoenix on Saturday for what was presumed to be an interview with Steve Keim, the Arizona Cardinals Vice President of Player Personnel. But the Chargers executives actually went to Arizona for a Saturday night dinner with Doug Marrone, who early Sunday morning agreed to become the Buffalo Bills’ head coach.

The Chargers were extremely impressed with Marrone, who had been head coach at Syracuse University, but he appeared to have already made up his mind by the time he met with the Chargers. A team source emphasized Saturday night’s meeting was not an interview but a chance to get to know Marrone and express interest in interviewing him next week.

The Chargers are just today preparing their letters to officially request permission to speak to potential head coaching candidates who are currently employed by other NFL teams.

At or near the top of that list, regardless of whether Telesco is the new GM, is Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. The Chargers had not previously inquired about Arians or other candidates because they wanted to get their GM in place first.

Discussions with the GM candidates revealed their list of possible head coaches largely overlapped and that whoever the GM is, the head coach candidates will be the “same guys.”

One person who was never on the Chargers’ radar was former Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid, who agreed last week to become the Kansas City Chiefs’ Head Coach.

One team source said yesterday that the Chargers are “ready for a change” with the new head coach they hire, further indicating that person will be a departure from both Norv Turner and Marty Schottenheimer in terms of hiring someone who has not already been a head coach multiple times.

The Chargers did receive permission to speak with three more candidates and have interviews still scheduled with two of them. But Raye has always been viewed as a frontrunner, and Telesco was termed by one source as “very impressive.”

Further, the remaining candidates are also in line for jobs elsewhere.

Tom Gamble, the San Francisco 49ers’ Director of Player Personnel, is believed headed to the New York Jets. Gamble declined a second interview with the Jacksonville Jaguars and “postponed” his interview with the Chargers.

Keim and Atlanta Falcons Director of Player Personnel Dave Caldwell are reportedly finalists for the GM job in Jacksonville.